Machine for connecting hollow air turning vanes with rails



Julyls, 1969 L. HARPE MACHINE FOR CONNECTING HOLLOW AIR TURNING VANES WITH RAILS Filed March 22, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 v INVENTOR.

LAFF IE HARPER BY 574ml mila, M uf-4 ATTORNEYS L. HARPER July 15, 19694 MACHINE FOR CONNECTING HOLLOW AIR TURNING VANES WITH RAILS Filed March 22, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. I AFFIE HARPER ATTORNEYS July 15, 1969 HARPER 3,455,008

MACHINE FOR CONNECTING HOLLOW AIR TURNING VANES WITH RAILS Filed March 22. 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR LAFFIE HARPER BY ywfw Mad/,Mq

ATTORNEYS United States Patent Office 3,455,008 Patented July 15, 1969 U.S. Cl. 29-208 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A machine for connecting hollow air turning vanes of uniform length to opposed side rails having tongues adapted to be pushed to tight frictional lit within the open ends of the vanes.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION Hollow or tubular open-ended turning vanes are old, and rails having tongues that frictionally fit in the open ends of such vanes are old, as is the assembly itself.

Heretofore each vane and one of the rails are connected by hammering the rail onto each vane with one of the tongues on the rail positioned within the open end of, one of the vanes, and this being accomplished, the assembly is turned upside down and the other rail hammered onto the tongues on the other rail. The procedure was awkward, slow, and expensive, and in many instances the tongue, being of sheet metal, and the opening to receive it -being sufciently small to insure a tight frictional engagement with the opposite edges of the tongue, the latter would be distorted and its removal and replacement difficult and time consuming.

SUMMARY By use of the present machine and method, the rails are fed longitudinally thereof, and convergently, into parallel paths with the tongues disposed in opposedly extending pairs, and the tongues of each opposed pair are simultaneously entered into the opposite open ends of one of the vanes adjacent to, but spaced from, said parallel paths, and then the tongues so entered are simultaneously and progressively forced fully into the vane as the rails are simultaneously moved into said parallel paths, the latter being spaced apart the length of each vane.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. l is a perspective view, partly in cross-section, of one of the side rails of a portion of a turning vane assembly, with one of the ends of one vane secured thereto;

FIG. 2 is a reduced size plan view of a portion of a turning vane assembly showing both side rails, and several vane secured to the rails;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the machine with the ends broken away and with the rails in position leading to the location where the vanes are secured to the side rails, such vanes being shown;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 3, omitting the rail;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 5--5 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged, fragmentary, cross-sectional view taken along line 6 6 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged, fragmentary, cross-sectional view taken along line 7-7 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view taken along line 8-48 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary semiadiagrammatic view of the operation of the stop means for positioning the rails and vanes.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A reference to FIGS. l, 2 before a description of the machine will clarify the operation of the machine.

In FIG. 2, a pair of parallel side rails 1 are shown, oneof which is shown in perspective in FIG. 1, and extending Ibetween them are hollow tubular vanes 2. The rails 1 are formed with tongues 3 that project toward each other and into the opposite ends of the tubular vanes. The widths of these tongues is such that they cannot be forced into the hollow ends of the vanes manually. By this machine, the tongues of opposed pairs are simultaneously pressed into the opposite ends of the vanes.

'The machine comprises a frame, generally designated 4 (FIGS. 4, 5), a pair of horizontally elongated, parallel frame members 5 in spaced, side-by-side relation that are connected by a pair of base plates 6 extending over and between frame members 5 at points intermediate the ends of the latter, and legs 7 rigid with frame members 5 support the latter and said base plates above the oor. The term base plates is used because they form the bases for the main portions of the machine.

A pair of horizontally extending and horizontally disposed rail supporting arms, generally designated `8, are rigidly secured at one of their ends on base plates 6. Said arms extend divergently outwardly from said one of their ends and to one side of said pair of frame members 5.

Each of said arms provides an upwardly opening channel 9 (FIGS. 3, 6) extending longitudinally thereof from the outer ends of said arms to points adjacent to said 1base plates, which channels may be formed in any suitable manner. In FIGS. 3, 6, each arm comprises a longitudinally elongated bar 10 to which an angle strip =13 is secured so that one leg 14 of said strip is spaced from and alongside one side of said bar to form one side of the channel, while the said side of the bar 10 alongside the strip forms the other side of the channel, and a portion of the other leg of the angle strip forms the bottom of the channel. Said legs 14 may extend slightly convergently from their outer ends toward plates 6 relative to the bars 10, if desired, but the rails 1 should freely slide in channels 9.

A rail 1 is adapted to be supported on edge on the bottom of each channel 9 for sliding each strip longitudinally thereof in each channel toward the convergent ends of the arms 8. The tongues 3 of the rails 1 project toward each other from the opposed sides of the pair of rails, and across and slightly spaced above the sides 14 of the channels 9, and it is pertinent in the present operation to note that each pair of opposite tongues are in the same vertical plane and which plane is perpendicualr to a medial vertical plane bisecting the space between the convergent ends of arms 8.

The sides 14 of channels 9 terminate at their ends that are adjacent to each base plate 6, and a second rail guide bar 15 rigid on each plate 6 continues substantially in the same direction as sides 14, except that their outer ends adjacent to sides 14 are more widely spaced from bars 10 than the spaces between the sides 14 and bars 10. These second rail guide bars 15 are of approximately the same height as the height of sides 14, and the side surfaces of bars 15 that face the bars 10 may each extend slantingly toward the bar 10 from their outer ends that are adjacent to the sides 14 of channels 9, but in any event, the rail guide bars 15 cooperate with base 1 and the guide bars 10 to form continuations 16 of channels 9. The inner ends of the rail guide bars 15 are the ends remote from the side walls 14 of channels 9, and they terminate on base plates 6 at points intermediate the opposite edges of said plates 6 that, in turn, are along the frame members 5.

A pair of parallel, horizontally elongated vane guide elements 17 respectively extend obliquely across the inner ends of the second rail guide bars (FIG. 3), and the upper sides or edges of said elements 17 may be approximately at the same level as the upper edges of the rail guide bars 15. Along the adjacent sides of the pair oLelements 17 are vane supporting tracks 18 (FIG. 5) thatrare adapted to slidably support the opposite end portions of vanes 2 that, in turn, extend between the opposed faces of the vane guide elements 17 in positions perpendicular to the latter. m.

Pairs of opposedly extending coplanar tongues 3 on the convergently extending lengths of rails 1 that, in turn, are slidably supported on the base plate 5 in the channel extensions 16, when in the dotted positions 19, would, be opposite to the open ends of a vane 2 supported on tracks 18 at said point. The words forward or forwardly usted to describe the direction of movement of the rails 1 and vanes 2, mean a direction of the rails and vanes from positions outwardly of the convergent ends of arms. 8 generally toward the convergent ends, or to the left as viewed in FIG. 3.

At this point, a further description of the rails and vanes will clarify the further description of the machine.

The rails 1 and such vanes as are connected therewith are manually moved forwardly, and the tongues 3 of a horizontally aligned pair will enter the open ends of each vane disposed between such pair when the major axis of the openings at the ends of the vane are vertical. As seen in FIG. 1, one side of each vane is vertical and planar, while the opposite side is bowed to present a convex outer surface with the minor axis of the passageway 30 (FIG. l) through each vane horizontal and the major axis vertical.

The tongues 3 on each rail 1 (FIG. l) are stamped from a strip of sheet metal leaving openings 20 at the strip at opposite sides of each tongue, and these openings extend to said opposite sides while the outer end of each tongue has its corners removed providing a generally pointed outer end portion 21 to facilitate entry of the outer ends of the tongues into the open ends of each vane.

Adjacent to, but slightly forwardly of the broken line position 19 of a pair of opposed, coplanar tongues 3, the frame 4 supports a pair of horizontally aligned, elongated, and horizontally positioned tongue guide forks 24, each fork comprising a pair of parallel fingers that are directed toward each other at opposite sides of the space between the inner convergent ends of arms 8. The fingers 25, 26 of each fork have flat opposed sides, and the adjacent outer corners are rounded, as at 28 (FIG. 3). The outer ends of fingers 25, 26, whichare the ends of the two pairs that face each other or that are adjacent to the rail guides 15,

terminate on lines that are approximately parallel with the nearest to each pair, and each such rail when in position in channel extensions 16 is between the rail guide 15 on one side and a fork 24 on the other side, with the finger 26 projecting a slightly greater distance toward the rail than the linger 24.

These forks are each connected with the inner end of a horizontally disposed and horizontally reciprocable ram, generally designated 27. When the rams 27 are in retracted positions, as shown in full line in FIG. 3, the outer ends of the fingers are in positions in which the fingers 26 will engage the edge of each tongue 3 where it adjoins the opening at the leading side of the tongue, since the portions of the rails extending past the outer ends of the fingers is sprung toward the latter. This engagement between the fingers 26 and the tongues 3 aligns the pair of coplanar tongues on the opposed rails with the spaces 28 between the fingers.

In operation, the operator will stand between arms 8 and will move the rails forwardly until positioned by lingers 26. A vane, with its major axis vertical is then positioned between the pair of aligned tongues by rst inserting the end portion 21 on one tongue into one open Cil end of the vane and then springing the rail having the other tongue to one side a sufficient distance to insert the end portion 21 on said other tongue into the opening at the opposite end of the vane. It is to be understood that the widest portion of each tongue cannot be manually forced into the vane, hence at this point only the end portions 21 can be positioned in the ends of the vane, and the next step is to commence forcing the tongues into the vanes without buckling or bending the tongues.

Each ram 27 is the same, and includes a pair-of vertically disposed, horizontally extending and elongated slide plates 33 that are in spaced, parallel, side-by-side relation extending normal to the tracks 18. Each guide fork 24 is secured against the outer lateral side of one of the slide plates 33 that, in turn, generally faces the portion of a rail extending to the tracks 18.

Each ram 27 has a head generally designated 34 (FIG. 3) that faces the pair of tracks 18, which head is in the form of a vertically disposed plate having a portion 35 facing the portion of each real 1 that extends slantingly to substantially the juncture with tracks 18, when a rail is supported in each channel extension 16. In horizontal continuation of the portion 35 in the direction in which the rails are moved, is a portion 36 that is parallel to track :18 and of greater vertical width than the portion 35 (FIGS. 4, 5).

The position of portions 35, 36 of the plate 34 forming the head of the ram, and their vertical widths are such that, upon movement of the head toward the rail the portion 35 will engage the central part of the rail 1 from which the tongues 3 are stamped, while the part 36 will engage substantially the full vertical width of the rail.

Guide strips 37, rigid on base plates 5, and between slide plates 33 of each ram 27 guide each ram for reciprocable movement toward and away from the adjacent rail 1. A conventional single acting, spring-return, hydraulic cylinder 38 is positioned between each pair of guide strips 37, and piston rod 39 connected with the plunger in each cylinder projects from the end of the cylinder adjacent to the cylinder. Each rod 39 is connected by a pivot 40 with each head 34. The opposite end of each cylinder is anchored by a bolt 43 to a plate 44 (FIG. 3) that, in turn, supports slide plates 33, the latter being rigid on base plate 6.

A conventional foot actuated switch 45 (FIG. 3) is in an electrical circuit with the solenoid of a solenoid actuated valve 46 in hydraulic line 47. Line 47 is branched to connect with the end of each cylinder 38 that is opposite to head 34 for kmoving the heads 34 toward each other and into engagement with the rails of a pair, and upon release of switch 45 the hydraulic pressure from any suitable source is released and the rams are retracted by springs (not shown). This hydraulic control system, in itself, is not new.

It has been explained that the operator will spring one of the rails in a direction away from the other rail to insert the portion 24 of said one of the rails into the open end of the vane 2 that is adjacent thereto, the other portion 24 on the tongue on said other rail having previously been inserted in the other end of the vane. To prevent the operator from accidentally loosening or pulling either of the previously inserted tongues out of the preceding vane, a pair of longitudinally aligned, horizontal stop bars 48 are adjustably held on members 49 respectively on the inner or adjacent ends of cylinders 38 for limiting the distance either of the rails can be sprung7 away from the other at points adjacent to the guide forks 24.

Assuming a pair of rails 1 have been positioned in channels 9 and have been moved to a position in which a pair of coplanar tongues are aligned with the slots 28 and a vane has been positioned between said tongues with the end portions 21 of the latter in the open ends of the vanes, the operator will actuate switch 45 and the fork arms 25, 26 of each guide fork 24 will pass to opposite sides of each tongue, until the arms extend substantially across the horizontal length of each tongue, at which time a tongue engaging member S (FIG. 3) will engage the inner end edge of each tongue at each rail 1, and at the same time the head 34 will engage each rail. Continued movement of the rams will result in forcing the tongues that are between the fork arms, into the vane that is be` tween the rails. The tongues between the fork arms 25, 26 are partially forced into the vane.

After retraction of the heads 34 the rails may be readily advanced manually by an operator standing between the arms 8, and upon the rails being stopped by engage- Iment between the outer ends of arms 26 and the inner edges of the tongues on the rails 1, and thereafter the ram is again actuated, and this time the portions of rails 1 carrying the previously attached vane will be engaged by the angled portions 3S of heads 34 and the previously inserted tongues 3 will be further pressed in to the previously attached vane. This intermittent forward movement of the rails 1 continues as the vanes are attached, and with each reciprocation of the ram, the tongues on the rails are progressively pushed into the vanes until the rails reach the parallel tracks 17, and then the portion 36 of the ram fully seat the tongues into the vanes and the tongues are straightened to be substantially perpendicular to the rails. The portion 36 of the ram head may be termed the attening portion of the ram since it seals the rails flat against the end edges of the vanes.

In FIG. 1 the rails and vanes are shown just after actuation of the rams to force the tongues 3 into the ends of the vanes, and the fingers 25, 26 have returned, preparatory to moving the rails 1 ahead. The fingers 26 are seen tobe clear of the rails.

FIG. 9 shows in full line the position of one of the vanes 1 and the finger 26 of a set of fork arms or fingers when the rails have been moved ahead. The dotted line position 1 of the rail indicates its position after the initial forcing of the tongue into the vane. From this it is seen that the next succeeding tongue 3 will strike the finger 26 when the rail 1 is moved ahead. The tongues 3 automatically position themselves to enter the space 28 between them when the ram is actuated to force the tongues into a vane.

The rail-vane assembly leaving the parallel tracks 17 may be cut to any desired lengths to meet the requirements of the places where the assembly is to be installed.

In view of the foregoing description, it is seen that the method of assembling the rails and vanes may be said to be one in which a pair of said rails is supported for movement thereof in one direction, longitudinally of the ra-ils, along a pair of spaced paths extending convergently in the direction of said movement to a point where the rails are spaced apart a distance substantially equal to the length of each vane with the tongues on the rails projecting toward each other into the space between said paths in aligned, opposed pairs.

Just prior to the point above mentioned, the 'end portions 21 of the tongues are inserted into the ends of the vanes, and thereafter the vanes are moved simultaneously past said point until the distance between said rails is approximately equal to the length of the vanes, and during said movement the tongues are progressively forced into the vanes, and thereafter the rails are directed along parallel paths and they are forced tightly against the ends of the vanes.

The movement to and along said parallel paths ymay be intermittent w-ith the tongues being progressively forced into the ends of the vanes, but the full insertion of the vanes is during the period of movement from the point where the tongues are adapted to enter the vanes, until they are fully enclosed within the vanes and the rails are tight against the ends of the vanes.

At least one of the base plates 6 is adjustably clamped to the pair of members by means of bolts 53 (FIG. 4) that are connected with a clamping member 54 extending below the members 5. Nuts 55 may be loosened to slide the plate 6 and a ram and the rail and vane supports on said plate, toward or away from the other plate for accommodating vanes of different lengths. Obviously, both plates 6 may be adjustable, if desired.

The apparatus is, of course, designed to carry out the method.

While one embodiment of the invention has been described above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the disclosed embodiment may be modified, hence the description is to be exemplary rather than limiting, and the true scope of the invention is that defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A machine for making an air turning vane assembly of the type having a pair of spaced opposed strips providing a pair of side rails supporting a row of spaced, parallel, tubular, open-ended vanes of uniform length between them by means of opposedly projecting tongues on said strips projecting into the opposite open ends of said vanes in tight frictional engagement. With the walls of said vanes, comprising;

(a) separate rail and vane supporting means in substantially the same plane for respectively supporting a pair of said rails for longitudinal movement thereof along convergently extending paths toward the convergent ends of said paths with the tongues thereon in coplanar aligned paths transversely of said paths, and for supporting a vane between said rails with its open ends in alignment with an aligned pair `of said tongues for movement along a straight path toward said convergent ends for entry of the tongues of said aligned pair into said open ends at points along said paths where the distance between the tongues of said pair thereof are approximately equal to the length Iof said vane,

(b) said rail supporting means including guide means for guiding said rails to and past said points,

(c) rail deecting means at the convergent ends of said paths, and spaced beyond said points relative to the' direction of movement of said rails, for engaging said rails and for deflecting them for movement along parallel paths spaced apart a distance approximately equal to the length of one of said vanes and at opposite sides of said straight path,

(d) rail engaging means supported at opposite sides of said path adjacent to said point for reciprocable movement toward and away from each other and into engagament with said rails for forcing said rails toward each other and moving the tongues thereon into said open ends of a vane therebetween.

2. In a machine as defined in claim 1;

(e) said rail engaging means including tongue supporting means movable with the former to positions at opposite sides of each tongue at said points for supporting said tongues against deformation during initial movement of said tongues into said open ends, said rails being of the type having openings formed therein at opposite sides of each tongue and through which said tongue supporting means is adapted to move to tongue supporting positions.

3. In a machine as defined in claim 1;

(e) said rails being adapted to be manually moved along said paths for successive positioning of vanes therebetween with their open ends at said points,

(f) said vane engaging means including members at opposite sides of said parallel paths of said rails to move said rails tightly against the ends of said vanes upon movement of said vane engaging means toward each other, whereby said' tongues will be fully enclosed within the open ends of each vane.

4. In a machine as defined in claim 2;

(f) said rail engaging means further including plates adjacent thereto and respectively substantially parallel with the adjacent one of said convergently extending paths in a position between the convergent ends of said paths and said vane engaging means for engaging and moving said rails toward each other and for further forcing said aligned pair of tongues into said vanes.

5. In a machine as defined in claim 1;

(e) said rail supporting means comprising a pair of upwardly opening horizontally extending channel members providing bottom walls `on each of which one of the longitudinally extending edges of said rails is adapted to be slidably supported, and opposed side walls for guiding said rails to said points,

(f) said vane supporting means comprising a pair of parallel horizontally extending tracks adapted to slidably support the end portions of said vanes andside walls along said tracks adapted to extend partially over the ends of the vanes on said tracks for supporting said vanes against longitudinal movement of the latter at said point, t

(g) said rail engaging means comprising a pair of rams having heads for engaging said rails upon actuation of said rams, and means for simultaneously actuating said rams,

(h) each of said heads including a pair of plates respectively parallel with said convergent paths and with said parallel paths for simultaneously engaging portions of said rail positioned in said divergent and said parallel paths,

(i) and each of said heads including tongue supporting means for supporting said tongues against deformation upon movement into the open ends of said vanes and into frlctional engagement with the Walls of said vanes at their opposite ends.

6. In a machine as defined in claim 3;

(g) stop means releasably positioned along said path engageable with a portion of said rails adjoining each pair of aligned tongues upon said rails being moved to position said pair lof tongues in alignment with a vane at said point and before movement of said rail engaging means with said rails.

(h) said rail engaging means being movable to positions moving said rails out of engagement with said stop means upon said movement of said rail engaging means to force said tongues into said vane.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,934,818 5/1960 Challoner et al 29-211 2,996,788 8/1961 Austin et al 29-156.8 X 3,011,248 12/1961 Gilkey 29-211 3,358,913 12/1967 Beesley 29-156.8 X

JOHN F CAMPBELL, Primary Examiner D. C. REILEY, Assistant Examiner U.S. C1. X.R. 

